Initial Ideas
I didn't really feel inspired by the unicorn theme when I first read it. I know horses are really difficult to draw correctly so I was already hesitant about being too ambitious with this piece. I did some ink sketches of horses and unicorns and it confirmed to me that it was going to take a lot more practice to get right, this would take up time that I didn't have to spare! I am determined to keep these Illustration Friday briefs very quick while I am on the Christmas break because I have a lot of work to be doing for other briefs. I thought about fantasy and mythical artwork but this would most likely involve representational drawings of a unicorn. I decided to take a more fun approach and use the unicorn as fancy dress, at first I thought human but then thought animals would be better. I wanted the animal to look unimpressed by the fact it has been put in a costume and I thought the facial expression of a pug would match this well.
Roughs
I did a few quick sketches but I want the composition to be very simple with the image as a floating spot, probably in the middle of a square frame. I may include text if I feel it is appropriate when the image is finished. This will probably be something I write by hand but then compose onto the image digitally.
Inspiration/Reference
I have used reference imagery of pugs to practice drawing their faces and getting the proportions of their body right. When drawing the body, I tried to shorten the limbs and make it look a little more chubby to make the dog seem more childlike.
Drawing
I drew what I had hoped to be my final ink drawing with a brush and indian ink. However, when this was finished, I felt like I had gone into too much detail to fit the humorous tone of the image so I used a lightbox to trace over this image with a finaliser to simplify it down.
Photoshop
On Photoshop I played around with colour. I wanted to leave the drawing black and white and just have the unicorn details in colour but the pug looked strange without having the darker shade of brown around its mouth and nose. I decided to colour in the whole image and have it as a floating spot on a white square background.
Evaluation so far...
I can't say I think this image is successful. I don't like the overall aesthetic because the digital addition of colour looks very amateur. Also, even though I traced my previous ink drawing to simplify it down, I don't think I simplified it enough. In hindsight, I think this would have looked better as a naive line drawing mimicking the childishness of the subject.
I am getting stressed about this stupid dog in a unicorn costume!
I did this really rough sketch which I feel defeats the point of my previous work but it captures the original idea I wanted of the dog looking like it is unimpressed to be put in this costume. Seeing as this was meant to be a quick drawing, I think this is most appropriate, he looks like an angry little princess.
Submission and Final Evaluation
I submitted this image very reluctantly. At first I thought Illustration Friday would be a fun thing to do each week but I find myself getting really stressed over it. I like taking my time with my work and trying to make something I like and when that doesn't happen in such a short amount of time I start to get frustrated. I feel like I really need to change my approach with these weekly briefs to keep the time spent on them to a minimum and hopefully make them more enjoyable.
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